My husband almost never posts on social media, but he shared a post our mayor wrote about Yirmi, (I’ll share that with you, also) and then shared this post of his own. I’m copying it below.
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Originally I posted words about Yirmi from our Mayor. Which are beautiful and I’m so grateful I had something like that to post right away at a time when I had no words to express anything. I woke up 3am this morning, finally with a need and head space to share some of my own thoughts and feelings about my child who so suddenly, from our perspective, finished his journey in the physical world.
Yirmyahu Werner, my son, whom everyone knew as Yirmi was a boy who entered this world in much the same way that he left it this past Erev Shabbos – with a house full of emergency medical workers struggling to breathe. In between, for over 14 years, he led an amazing life full of smiles, joy for life, a tremendous will to experience all he could, and love for people, Torah and Mitzvos and so much more.
(Yirmi and me at his school bar mitva celebration, September 2025)
When our sages said, “nothing can hold back the will power of a person”, they could not have had a better person in mind than our Yirmi. The most beautiful sweet child, he had several health challenges, yet he was constantly, step by step, moving ahead to learn, develop, and become who Hashem meant him to be. Yes, he carried the extra chromosome that expresses itself in what the world unfortunately has dubbed a “syndrome”, but it did not define the specialness of Yirmi. It came from who he was.
I have a lot of emotions over our loss. I never thought I could cry so much. But before sharing feelings, I feel a strong need to share with you a bit about our boy.
Yirmi spoke his first words, pretty late in life, at the age of 4 and speaking and pronouncing words never came easy to him. Yet he worked at it his whole short life, until he became a boy who could carry on meaningful conversations with family, friends, and neighbors. One of the first people that called me in the hospital after this Shabbos to check on his condition was a neighbor who would chat with Yirmi, sometimes over an hour at a time when he would visit them in their home. She was shocked and, expressed to me, as she had in the past, about what a smart and sensitive person he was. Her husband was here at the shivah last night with tears in his eyes.
Until his passing, verbal communication was still a conscious effort in getting out the exact sounds, but he was never self conscious about it and would just repeat himself until he got it right, whether it was communicating with someone – which was probably his favorite activity, or his other favorite activity, learning and even teaching Torah.
Yirmi for many years has loved studying Torah especially with others and was never shy to, adamantly and enthusiastically, ask even a new aquaintance to sit and learn with him. Since his bar mitzvah this past summer, he has literally read the cover off the set of Chumash with Rashi that I bought him by, much of the time, sitting himself and reading. Every day after school he gets on the phone with one of his big brothers and asks to study with them. They are very obliging and he has had a beautiful personal and learning relationship with them.
Shabbos he stands up at our table, shul or local Yeshiva and reads from his Chumash and shares his explanations with the listeners. One day, two weeks ago an excited group of boys about Yirmi’s age came came up to my car as I was coming to collect Yirmi from one of his unannounced and non-parentally sanctioned trips to the Yeshiva. They told me very excitedly and sincerely how Yirmi had given them a shiur (lecture) in that week’s Torah portion.
Other times, I have entered a large vacation rental down the street from us, looking for Yirmi – another of his hobbies was getting himself invited to a Shabbos meal with new friends – and I found him sharing his words of Torah with the families staying there. One time he was even giving brachot (blessings) to the children in the vacation rental. They insisted, as was usually the case, that I let Yirmi be their guest. Yirmi had been taking independent excursions since he was a child, which was always a challenge, but, of late, it has gotten harder to drive home the point of letting us know where he is going, when I got so much nachas from what he did when he went out.
So much more to tell.
Yirmi was such a huge part of all our lives. He moved on so suddenly and it is hard to imagine moving on without him now.
Thank you to everyone who showed up for the funeral and shivah so far. Every person is meaningful to my family and I.
Osher Werner